Books that I read in 2017/18
Updated: Dec 18, 2019
I spent the bulk of 2017/18 travelling. I went to New Zealand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India (and I have plenty of climate anxiety about it). During this time, I rediscovered my love of reading, and I read anything and everything I could find:
New Zealand
Essential – Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus
Minimalism – Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus
Everything That Remains – Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus
Leaving Time – Jodi Picoult
Lone Wolf – Jodi Picoult
Under a Pole Star – Stef Penney
The Telling Error – Sophie Hannah
The Last of Us – Rob Ewing
The Man Who Couldn’t Stop – David Adam
Where Earth Meets Sky – Annie Murray
Vietnam
The Game – Neil Strauss
Sri Lanka
The Truth – Neil Strauss
The Husbands Secret – Liane Moriarty
What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding – Kristin Newman
Come Back Frayed – Colin Wright
The Power – Naomi Alderman
How to Stop Time – Matt Haig
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - J. K. Rowling
The Cocaine Diaries – Jeff Farrell and Paul Keany
The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
UK
This is Going to Hurt – Adam Kay
India
The Heart Goes Last – Margaret Atwood
A Street Cat Named Bob – James Bowen
The Woman Who Stole My Life – Marian Keyes
Everyday Sexism – Laura Bates
The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening – L. J. Smith
Journey Across Tibet – Sorrel Wilby
The Psychopath Test – Jon Ronson
The Idiot Brain – Dean Burnett
Vanishing Tracks – Darla Hillard
The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss
How to be Champion – Sarah Millican
The Wise Man’s Fear – Patrick Rothfuss
101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think – Brianna Wiest
Notes on a Nervous Planet – Matt Haig
Sapiens – Yuval Noah Harari
A Walk In The Woods – Bill Bryson
Let It Go – Chris Williams
Looking back on a list of books means more than just a reflection of the hours spent staring at their pages, it triggers memories of where I was and how I felt when I read each one. In the early days of travel, I read on farms in New Zealand, excited to be experiencing an adventure away from home and remembering how much I loved to read. Later in my trip, reading became an introvert's escape from the daily assaults of travelling. At the field house in Sri Lanka, reading meant curling up in my mosquito net and passing idle hours. While in India, I read every single day, and even read one of these books at 4,500 m while acclimatising before climbing a 6,500 m mountain.
I have a few favourites in this list; Under a Pole Star because it featured a geologist/explorer that reminded me of James, Leaving Time simply because it's by Jodi Picoult and I love all her books, and The Name of The Wind because it was the best fantasy novel I've read since The Magician's Apprentice trilogy.

I'm so glad I rediscovered reading while I was away, especially when travel delays become reading opportunities in disguise.